It Gets Easier [Real Food]

The last thing I want to hear about this food plan – is it all natural? organic? – is that you crave chocolate and are always hungry.

My response was simply, Stay tuned. I had no other response. I knew this journey would be hard. And I knew most people around me would think it was really not worth it. But I was confident that my strong desire for chocolate chips and my frustration at not being prepared would get better as the month went on. And I was right.

It has gotten easier. The first week was the hardest. Even though I had tried to prepare our kitchen and plan our meals for the month, the first week was still full of “oh no – that won’t work” moments. But we are beginning to get the hang of it.

We are no longer hungry all the time … but we eat more frequently. We eat until we’re full – which ends up being smaller portions than we used to eat. Most days we have three smallish meals and 2-3 snacks.

We are discovering that deliciousness comes from preparing your own meals. Sweet treats don’t have to be super sweet and filled with sugar. The crockpot has become our best friend.

Many people think I’m crazy to be doing this whole real food journey with a new baby in the house. How in the world do you have time for that? But the reality is – there is never a better time to start eating better. It will always be confusing and time consuming at first. We are conditioned to want quick, grab-n-go, no-prep food. But sadly, 95% of the quick, grab-n-go, no-prep food that’s out there is not really food…

We are no longer always hungry. We do still want chocolate. But, our initial journey is only 31 days. At the end of the month, we will allow ourselves to enjoy our favorite Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies. We will make them ourselves. We will eat 1 or 2 and freeze the rest. Because after all, it’s all about moderation.

But this month – this month is about discipline. About forcing ourselves to find new foods that we like. Getting rid of the sugar cravings – or fulfilling them with a piece of fruit instead of a cookie. And remembering that we are so lucky to be able to travel to a farmer’s market each weekend and pick from a variety of delicious locally-grown produce. So blessed to be able to experiment with food and come up with incredibly creative meals – that we never would have eaten before.

Most of all, this month is about being thankful for what we have. Trust me my friends … switching to real food does, in fact, get easier.

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You know, we did this challenge back in October as well. It does turn out to be really hard in a lot of ways. For example, whole wheat doesn’t sit well on the stomach of everyone in our family. However, we also found there are lots of good alternatives to processed things. Those chocolate cookies you crave? Try a small cup of home made hot cocoa. You can buy unprocessed pure cocoa add your own sweetener (we got a small container of unprocessed from the farmers market for such things) and some milk. It was a delicious treat on nights when you want something different than a piece of fruit.